This application relates to a new and improved container handling method and apparatus and more particularly to a new and improved method and apparatus for discharging containers from a continuously operable, closed loop container carrier of a container washing system having a multiplicity of container baskets arranged in a staggered configuration.
In the beverage industry, it is a common practice to recycle beverage containers such as beer bottles and soft drink bottles for environmental reasons and to conserve packaging materials. To recycle glass bottles, the bottles are commonly fed to a multistage bottle soaker which subjects the bottles to caustic solutions of varying concentration and temperature, and then to rinse water. The caustic solutions dissolve or wash away foreign matter in or on the bottles including prior beverage residue, labels and waste materials such as cigarettes, gum, paper products, mold, animal parts, etc. The bottles are commonly loaded onto a bottle carrier, carried through the soaker, unloaded from the carrier, manually or automatically inspected for breakage or foreign residues and then are transported outside of the recycling plant or directly sent to further processing such as filling, labeling, packaging, etc. The efficiency of the soaking operation is dependent upon, inter alia, the capacity of the soaking apparatus, the critical retention time required for removing foreign deposits, and the ability to rapidly load and unload bottles from the carrier with the least possible degredation to the bottle surfaces. The soaking operation can potentially be made more efficient by increasing the capacity of the bottle carrier, for example, by constructing bottle baskets in the carrier in a closely adjacent, staggered manner with each basket being offset from adjacent baskets in adjacent transverse and longitudinal rows. However, due to a lack of capacity in the unloading step of prior apparatus, such a configuration has resulted in a relatively high percentage of bottles being jammed and/or broken unless unloading is carried out intermitently.
This and other deficiencies can be overcome by a new and improved method and apparatus for discharging containers from such a continuously operable, closed loop container carrier. Increased discharge capacity is obtained by transferring containers in alternate transverse rows of container baskets from the carrier to a first discharge conveyor, supporting the containers in the other alternate, offset transverse rows of container baskets within the container carrier beyond the point of transfer of the containers in the alternate transverse rows of container baskets, and then transferring the containers in the other alternate, offset transverse rows of container baskets from the carrier to a second discharge conveyor. Apparatus of the invention comprises a continuously operable, closed loop container carrier for carrying containers through a container processing system, the carrier having parallel rows of container baskets with each container basket being transversely and longitudinally offset from adjacent baskets in adjacent rows, a first container transfer means for receiving containers from alternate transverse rows of container baskets of the closed loop container carrier and transferring the containers to a first discharge conveyor, a second container transfer means spaced from the first container transfer means for receiving containers from the other alternate transverse rows of container baskets and transferring the containers to a second discharge conveyor, container support means extending between said first and second container transfer means for supporting containers in the other alternate transverse rows of container baskets as they are moved from said first container transfer means to said second container transfer means, and first and second discharge conveyors for receiving containers from the first and second container transfer means and transferring the containers to a remote point for further processing. All of the containers are removed from the continuously operable, closed loop carrier during continuous operation of the apparatus without interference between containers from adjacent rows when the containers are unloaded from the carrier.